Bangladesh is roiled in the most intense protests and domestic upheaval in decades. The protests began peacefully by students objecting to a quota system for government jobs, in which government jobs are mostly reserved for those who fought in the 1971 war for independence and their descendants. That quota system was in place for years, then it was substantially revoked only to be re-instated by Bangladesh's high court in a ruling last month. This sparked protests which turned violent when a pro-government student group attacked the protesters. The government of Sheikh Hasina has since enacted ..read more

Alsu Kurmasheva was visiting her ailing mother in Russia when she was detained by the authorities and had her passports confiscated. She is a journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and her arrest immediately raised alarms that, like the Wall Street Journal's Evan Gershkovich, yet another American journalist has been targeted and wrongfully detained in Russia. However, unlike the wrongful detention of Evan Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva's case is far less known. My guest today is Pavel Butorin, Alsu's husband and also a journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. He explains what hap ..read more

On May 19th, a helicopter crash in Iran killed President Ebrahim Raisi and several top government officials. This forced new presidential elections, and on July 5th, Masoud Pezeshkian defeated his more hardline opponent and is now Iran's president-elect. Pezeshkian comes from the reformist faction of Iranian politics, but real power still lies in the hands of unelected clerics, none more so than Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. Still, this election will have an impact on Iran's relationship with the outside world, including the West. Joining me to explain the international implications of Ma ..read more

The Labour Party won an overwhelming victory in the recent elections in the United Kingdom. Keir Starmer is now Prime Minister, ending 14 years of Conservative rule in the UK. So what does this mean for Britain's foreign policy? Can we expect any major changes to Britain's relationship with the world? Joining me to discuss the foreign policy implications of the UK elections is Jason Pack, host of the Disorder Podcast. We have an extended discussion about the new Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, who Jason Pack argues will have an outsized role in shaping UK foreign policy in the years to come. T ..read more

A rather bizarre incident recently occurred in the South China Sea off the coast of the Philippines. On June 17th, the Chinese Coast Guard clashed with Philippine naval vessels en route to resupplying a stranded Philippine ship on a formation known as the Second Thomas Shoal. This desolate shoal is very much in the territorial waters of the Philippines, but China nonetheless claims it as Chinese sovereign territory. The Chinese have routinely harassed Philippine ships in the area, but on June 17th, the Chinese Coast Guard attacked the Philippine naval vessels with water cannons, swords, and ax ..read more

On June 27th, a group of food security experts from the United Nations and major international relief agencies known as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) released devastating new data on hunger in Sudan. Their data shows that over 755,000 people are experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity. This means that there are almost no coping mechanisms left, and people are starving to death. Those experiencing this extreme level of food insecurity are spread throughout several regions; it is not localized to just one part of the country. The cause is conflict. In April ..read more

On Tuesday, June 25, Kenyan protesters stormed parliament in Nairobi in scenes reminiscent of the January 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol. However, unlike January 6, police responded violently, and at least six people were killed. The protests had been ongoing for days as the Kenyan parliament moved on a finance bill that would increase taxes for ordinary Kenyans in unusual ways. Like many countries in Africa, the government of Kenya faces an extreme level of debt and was looking for new sources of revenue to service its debt payments while also keeping the government functioning. Following t ..read more

The situation in Southern Lebanon is extremely precarious. Israel is positioning more and more military assets along its northern border, while Hezbollah continues its near-daily attacks on Israeli targets from Lebanon and has threatened an all-out war. Caught in the middle are about 10,000 United Nations peacekeepers. The United Nations Interim Mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has more peacekeepers deployed per square kilometer than any other UN peacekeeping mission in the world. These peacekeepers have helped avert an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah in the past, but tensions ar ..read more

Since 2019, Burkina Faso has been in a state of near-constant conflict. Extremist groups control or occupy large swaths of the country—about 40-50% according to some estimates. Meanwhile, the government is extremely unstable and has been toppled by a succession of military coups. The military government in power today is generally hostile to the same Western powers that have historically supported the people of Burkina Faso with humanitarian and development assistance. My guest today, Jan Egeland, is the president of the Norwegian Refugee Council, a large international humanitarian NGO. Each y ..read more

This is the debut of "To Save Us From Hell," our new weekly chat show about the United Nations. "To Save Us From Hell" is a project of Global Dispatches and features weekly conversations between co-hosts Mark Leon Goldberg and Anjali Dayal about the latest news and happenings around the United Nations. They discuss the implications of Vladimir Putin's visit to North Korea for the UN, recent progress on Gaza and Sudan at the Security Council, and who should replace the outgoing top UN humanitarian official, Martin Griffiths. To Save Us From Hell is a project of Global Dispatches and is supporte ..read more